Five
die in house explosion in Zengeza 2 Chitungwiza

A massive explosion ripped through a house in
Zengeza 2 in Chitungwiza Monday afternoon, instantly killing five people and
injuring others, police said.

Police Inspector Daniel Badza from St
Mary’s police station told SW Radio Africa the blast occurred just after 3pm
and killed 4 adults and one minor.

He said they are yet to establish what
caused the explosion that destroyed eight other houses along Mbaura street
in the surburb.

‘We are busy with our investigations and its still early
to pinpoint the exact cause of the explosion. We have officers on the ground
scurrying to the area to establish what happened,’ Inspector Badza
said.

Job Sikhala, the former MP for St Mary’s, said his house is more
than 2km from the street where the explosion took place, but it was so huge
it shook his house. He said he believed that the house belonged to a
tradional healer, who is known to have kept gas cylinders.

‘From what
I hear from people in the area, the owner of the house which was apparently
obliterated by the blast, belonged to this n’anga, who is well known in the
area,’ Sikhala said.

Jabulani
Sibanda threatens MDC supporters in Chipinge

War vets leader Jabulani Sibanda has told
MDC-T supporters in Chipinge that they will be killed if they vote against
ZANU PF in the forthcoming harmonized elections.

The MDC-T says
Sibanda has been based in Musikavanhu for the last three days, forcing
villagers to his meetings. He has promised he will unleash violence against
anyone who supports the party led by Prime Minster Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Pishai Muchauraya, the party spokesman in Manicaland,
confirmed that the war vets leader had been intimidating their supporters
with the object of spreading fear.

Muchauraya, the MDC-T’s Makoni
South MP, accused Sibanda of lying to the villagers that he had the
capability to monitor how the villagers will vote in the
election.

‘He has ordered all headmen and chiefs in the district to write
down names of people whose ages range from 15 to 60 and also state which
party they support,’ he said.

According to Muchauraya, Sibanda
claimed that all villagers in the district will be issued with numbers by
the chiefs that they will present to ZANU PF people who will be monitoring
people as they come to vote.

‘Sibanda says they will use the numbers to
see who has voted against ZANU,’ Muchauraya said.

The MP however
rubbished the claims, suggesting Sibanda belongs to the ‘wild west’ where
things were settled using the laws of the jungle.

‘This is just a gimmick
by Sibanda to intimidate our supporters. He has no capacity whatsoever to
dictate how voters will cast their votes, once inside a polling
booth.

‘He preached the same message in 2008, but ZANU PF lost the
election and they will lose again this time using the same strategy,’
Muchauraya said, adding that an election campaign needs to be done in a free
and democratic manner.

‘Electioneering should not be done under
threats and intimidation. Intimidating people is itself, of course, the
highest manifestation of dictatorship,’ explained
Muchauraya.

Meanwhile police in Chivhu arrested an MDC-T official on
allegations of waving his party symbol to a senior police
officer.

Reports said the MDC deputy district chairperson for Chikomba
West, Patrick Chipo Gwini, was arrested in Chivhu and was detained for about
four hours. He was charged and was ordered to report again to the
police.

The official said police allege that he provoked a Superintendent
Mutasa by waving the open palm MDC salute at him. Gwini denies the
allegations claiming the police were after him, after he accused them of
being partisan at a recent meeting of political parties.

Elephant calves
back in Zim wild

Harare,
Zimbabwe - An animal welfare group says five baby elephants held in
captivity in western Zimbabwe for shipment to zoos in China have been
returned to the wild.

The National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals said Monday the calves were taken to a state-run national
park over the weekend where they will undergo “rehabilitation and
integration” with existing elephant herds. The babies' real mothers could
not be traced.

State parks and wildlife officials agreed on their
release, the group said, and “the capture of wild animals for zoos or
similar habitats, irrespective of location” is expected to be
stopped.

Four baby elephants were flown to China in November.
Conservationists said the calves suffered extreme stress separated from
family groups on the 36-hour journey to China and one died later. - Sapa-AP

Elephants
still being held to fulfil Chinese wildlife order

There is concern for the fate of at least two elephants
still being held in Zimbabwe for future export, to fulfil an order placed by
China.

The animals are being held in Victoria Falls, according to the
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF). They are part of an order that was
only part filled with the export of four baby elephants to zoos in China
late last year. One of those elephants has since died.

Another five
elephants, four of which were destined for China, were this weekend
transferred to the Umfurudzi National Park after they were released from
bomas they were being held in, at Hwange National Park. The animals had been
captured and removed from their family herds ahead of being exported. But
the National Parks authorities, following the intervention of the Zimbabwe
NSPCA, decided the group would be rehabilitated at Umfurudzi because they
“had grown too big” and were too used to the bomas.

The animals now face
a three month rehabilitation period.

ZCTF chairman Johnny Rodrigues, told
SW Radio Africa on Monday that this victory is bittersweet, because it
doesn’t change the fact that orders for animals are still being placed and
fulfilled. He said that there are still animals being held, including the
two elephants in Victoria Falls. He said that orders for another 48
elephants have already been placed by international countries, and the cash
strapped government would be fulfilling these demands.

“I praise the
people that were involved in having the animals released, but I believe
there is hidden agenda. There are still animals being held,” Rodrigues
said.

He said the government is already committed to fulfilling China’s
order, because they have been paid.

“I admire all the people that did
so much to save them (the five released elephants), but there are another 48
elephants on order to be exported,” Rodrigues warned.

He added: “It
is frightening when we exploit something that is our heritage and export
them to another country. We are going to get a High Court order to prevent
authorities from doing what they are doing.”

Elephant death prompts action against UN tourism conference

The death of a baby Zimbabwean elephant in a Chinese zoo has prompted
public action against the upcoming United Nations (UN) tourism conference, with
participants being urged to boycott that meeting.

The meeting is set to take place in Victoria Falls in August. But the
recent exportation of four baby elephants to China, along with ongoing human
rights abuses, has resulted in a public backlash against Zimbabwe’s hosting of
the international conference.

Anew petition on the action website Avaaz
calls on the participants at the conference to boycott the
event.

“Human rights in Zimbabwe is at an all time low, as is their protection of
the environment and wildlife. The Zimbabwe government recently exported 4 young
elephants to China, using inhumane methods to transport them and complete
disregard for CITES laws. One of the young elephants has died and there are
allegedly more young elephants waiting to be exported. The Zimbabwe Government
has a long and distasteful record with regards to its treatment of its wildlife
and its people. It is only with boycotts and sanctions from people across the
world that the message of this unacceptable behaviour can be clearly
communicated to them,” the petition reads.

The petition only has 107 signatures so far and Zimbabweans are being urged
to use such petition tools to have their voices heard.

Bleak
future for Zim tourism

By Richard Chidza, Staff WriterMonday, 21 January
2013 11:44HARARE - With the world agonising on whether to attend the United
Nations World Tourism Authority (UNWTO) jamboree slated for August in
Zimbabwe and Zambia, operators say the country’s wildlife sector stands at
the precipice.

In a statement last week the Save Conservancy Trust
(SVC)said the world is unsure whether to smile, look away or
cry.

“With January being the most important month of the year for the
marketing of hunting safaris the current impasse is a recipe for disaster:
no hunting permits, no overseas clients, no SVC income, collapse of the SVC,
no community benefits now or ever — huge diplomatic fallout, dire
consequences for Zimbabwe’s tourism,” the Trust said.

“The world is
in dismay as Zimbabwe allows the destruction of its tourism
jewel.”

Whilst the political will for the solution has been
repeatedly expressed, the actual progress on the ground is
non-existent.

The SVC is simply being blackmailed into submission by
National Parks who have since refused to issue hunting permits for 2012 and
now also for 2013,” the statement added.

Following the failure by a
Zanu PF politburo committee to resolve the impasse, government has since
moved and formed a committee headed by deputy premier Arthur Mutambara to
find a solution to the troubles bedevilling one of the world’s biggest
wildlife sanctuaries.

The SVC said the failure by tourism authorities
particularly the department of parks and wildlife to act or its negative
actions, have often been to the detriment of private and national
wildlife.

Natural Resources minister Francis Nhema and his Tourism
counterpart Walter Mzembi both from Zanu PF have been at each other’s throat
over the wildlife sanctuary saga.

Mzembi, fronting Zimbabwe’s quest
for a successful co-hosting of the tourism extravaganza with Zambia has
argued that the negative reports being generated by the so called
indigenisation drive in the wildlife sector are working against his
efforts.

Zanu PF factional fights pitting vice president Joice Mujuru and
Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa fighting to succeed Mugabe have also
been blamed for the chaos in the Save Valley.

Nhema is reported to
belong to the Mnangagwa faction while Mzembi is said to side with
Mujuru.

“Conservancies at large have suffered from actions of the
department of parks rather than enjoyed its support, whilst the ministry of
Environment (under Nhema) manoeuvres in the background.

“How does a
willing SVC engage on its many community participation proposals with
unresponsive government departments?” the Trust queried.

Two weeks ago,
Germany ambassador to Zimbabwe, Hans Gnodtke warned that his country and
other European countries may boycott the UNWTO summit in protest over the
decimation of the SVC some of whose properties are protected by Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs).

SVC said a Zanu
PF-aligned group now known as the “Masvingo 37” is on the rampage while
government watches.

“What is the goal for refusing hunting permits for
the SVC and other conservancies?

“A group called the “Masvingo 37”,
already multiple beneficiaries from the land redistribution programme, are
holding investors to ransom and demanding a stake under a murky policy
called “Wildlife-based land reform.”

“The “Masvingo 37” has stated that
their interest is not in conservation or active participation “we want cash”
is the recorded demand.

They are actively engaged in poaching and bush
meat trade as we write,” the statement said.

Report:
Zimbabwe Army Bartering Diamonds For Arms

Zimbabwe's Deputy Mines Minister has leveled serious accusations at
the nation's armed forces, accusing it of colluding to trade the country's
rough diamonds for weapons, Rough and Polished reports. Gift Chimanikire of
the Movement for Democratic Change Party said that the nation was not
earning as much as it should for its rough diamonds, because instead of
being sold on the open market, they are being bartered for arms.The
diamond company doing the most mining activity in the Marange region, Anjin,
is owned by China and the Zimbabwean Army in a 90%-10% split, and it is
difficult to account for the dollar value of the army's share of the gems,
since they are traded for weapons, according to Chimanikire. The Deputy
Mines Minister said that as of 2 years ago, Anjin had amassed 5.8 million
carats of rough diamonds that were not brought to tender in
Harare.Chimanikire recommended a change in the way diamonds were sorted in
the country in order to quash corruption, according to Rough and Polished.
The Deputy Minister criticized Zimbabwe's practice of sorting diamonds at
the country's International Airport and advocated for the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority to audit transactions where the diamonds are produced to begin
with.

Mugabe
Buries Deputy Nkomo, Urges Peaceful Zimbabwe Poll

Harare, January
21, 2013 - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday buried his deputy,
John Nkomo, whose death from cancer has underscored concerns about the
88-year-old leader's own health problems and succession
plans.

Mugabe, who has been in power for more than three decades, is
seeking another five-year term as president after his Zanu (PF) party chose
him as its candidate for elections due this year despite fears he is
battling prostate cancer.

Making no reference to his own health,
Mugabe called for peaceful elections and praised Nkomo, who died last week,
as a man of principle who worked to foster political reconciliation between
rival parties.

The southern African country has a history of violent and
disputed elections, including one in 2008 that led Mugabe and arch rival
Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to form a
compromise unity government.

Mugabe told thousands of mourners at a
Harare shrine to heroes of Zimbabwe's independence struggle that the best
tribute to Nkomo would be a smooth election.

"Peace, unity and
harmony should prevail in the country if we desire to move forward," he said
in the hour-long address.

The Heroes' Acre speech was interrupted by
heavy rain and a power cut to the public address system - a reminder of the
economic woes that have bedevilled the former British colony since Mugabe's
seizure of commercial farms in 2000.

Despite the soothing words, critics say Mugabe is not doing
enough to control militant Zanu (PF) supporters, some of whom booed
Tsvangirai when a cabinet minister acknowledged his presence before Mugabe's
address.

Rights groups on Friday condemned what they called an escalating
campaign against ZANU-PF critics ahead of elections, which could be held by
September.

The civic organizations, including church and legal
groups, said there was a "well-calculated and intensified" assault on rights
activists, journalists and artists through slander, intimidation, raids,
arrests and prosecutions. Reuters

Focus
on new charter ignores other reforms in GPA

While the Constitution drafting team sets
to work preparing the final draft of a new charter agreed to by the
government principals last week, debate over what was agreed and what it
means for the country’s elections has intensified.

As the political
parties celebrate an agreement after three years of bickering, the other key
reforms stipulated by the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have slowly faded
into the background and elections have become the one thing government
appears to be concerned with.

McDonald Lewanika, Director of the Crisis
Coalition, told SW Radio Africa that other reforms stipulated by the GPA,
that are essential to ensure a credible poll, have been sidelined and
elections are now the focus. He explained that at least one important
reform, the Constitution, has finally been completed.

“Of course the
other reforms that are critical for us to hold free and fair elections have
been sidelined as people focused on this long running episode of the
Constitution making process, which I think is unfortunate. But from a
political psychology point of view, the Constitution was the biggest prize,”
Lewanika said.

He added: “I have to agree with those who say we need
to hold on opening the champagne bottle, because the definitive process that
is supposed to take place which is the referendum, we do not yet know when
that will be. And we have no date for elections either.”

The deadlock
had been caused by ZANU PF’s refusal to stick to the July, 2012 draft that
their negotiators signed, insisting on many changes that they claimed
represented the will of the people.

The MDC formations at first refused
to make any more changes, saying they had already compromised enough. They
even wrote to the SADC appointed mediator, President Jacob Zuma, calling on
him to intervene.

At a press conference after the agreement last week,
Robert Mugabe said: “We shall after the actual completion of the draft
constitution, be making a proclamation as to the way forward and then we
will stipulate our roadmap and state when the referendum will be held. And
that will indicate also when our elections will be forthcoming.”

“We”
meant the principals, and this has been strongly criticised by the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), who are advocating for a NO vote on the new
charter. NCA spokesman Madock Chivasa told SW Radio Africa that the exercise
has been taken over by three people, after wasting lots of time and
money.

“We have always been against this process saying that the
politicians should not write the constitution. So what has happened now is
they have finally handed it over to their principals who then finally agreed
on the contents of the constitution,” Chivasa explained.

He added:
“What it means is that we now have a Constitution that has been written by
political leaders. The contents of the draft are based on what ZANU PF was
demanding and what the three principals wanted. As the NCA we believe this
is totally unacceptable after wasting so much time and money.”

In terms
of a timeline, COPAC co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora, has said he expects the
final drafting to be completed within a week or by the end of January at the
latest. Presentation to parliament in February would be next, followed by a
referendum in late March or early April.

But according to the state run
Herald newspaper, the new agreement “means the President could immediately
call for elections anytime after the new Constitution has been
adopted.

The paper quotes Paul Mangwana, the ZANU PF co-chair in COPAC,
as saying: “The forthcoming elections will have no timelines in the new
Constitution because those elections are not going to be determined by the
new law”.

Constitution
deal waives election timelines

Lloyd Gumbo Herald ReporterTHE draft Constitution has
waived timelines within which President Mugabe can call for
elections.This comes amid indications that leaders of political parties may
cut on the timelines on Constitution-making that were provided in the Global
Political Agreement as efforts to hold polls gather momentum.

Copac
co-chairpersons Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (Zanu-PF) and Mr Douglas
Mwonzora (MDC-T) said the new provision had been arrived at because they did
not know when the Constitution-making process was going to be
completed.

This means the President could immediately call for elections
anytime after the new Constitution has been adopted.“The forthcoming
elections will have no timelines in the new Constitution because those
elections are not going to be determined by the new law,” said Cde
Mangwana.

“The date will be proclaimed by President Mugabe anytime after
the referendum.However, the elections to follow will be guided by the
new Constitution that requires that Parliament should be dissolved 30 days
before expiry of its term.”

Added Mr Mwonzora: “This draft does not
provide for when the elections are going to be held for the forthcoming
polls only. This election will be declared in terms of the Global Political
Agreement where the President and the Prime Minister will have to analyse
certain things that need to be done and then the date for the elections will
be declared. They can do this soon after the completion of the
referendum.”

“This was tactical because we didn’t know when the new
Constitution was going to be completed. It was difficult to provide for the
election timelines in the new Constitution for that reason.”

The
current Constitution provides that the elections should be held within 90
days after the President’s proclamation of poll dates.Mr Mwonzora said the
draft provided that future elections would be declared in the last month of
the presidential term.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, he said, was
expected to conduct voter education while the Constitution-making process
was underway.He said there were clauses in the draft Constitution that were
supposed to be incorporated into the Electoral Act in the event that the new
Constitution was adopted.

Cabinet, he said, was supposed to quickly
sponsor the exercise soon after the adoption of the new Constitution to
expedite the process leading to the holding of the elections.

Mr
Mwonzora said it was likely that the referendum would be held towards the
end of March or early April.Cde Mangwana said after receiving the draft
from the drafters today, they would then take it to Parliament together with
their report of the whole Constitution-making
process.

Parliamentarians, he said, would just comment on the draft but
would not change its contents.“After that, the President will then make
a proclamation calling for the referendum. The Select Committee will also
embark on a nationwide massive public awareness programme so that the nation
can understand the contents of the draft.

“After that we will then go
to the referendum. The GPA says there should be three months between the
publication of the draft and the referendum.

“However, it is up to the
Principals and President Mugabe to set the date. My own estimation is that
we could have the referendum at the end of March or early April,” said Cde
Mangwana.

After the referendum, he said, the draft would be brought back
to Parliament for formal adoption and again the legislators would not change
its contents.

The Bill would then be sent to the President for his
assent.It is at that stage that the President can then proclaim election
dates.MDC president Professor Welshman Ncube said PM Tsvangirai was asked by
the principals to engage ZEC so that they can say when they will be ready to
conduct the referendum.

“Once ZEC advises the Prime Minister of how
fast they can do the referendum, the PM will then report back to principals.
The President will then be guided by ZEC on when referendum could be
held.

“The GPA requires that there should be three months between
publication of the draft and the referendum but the parties in Government
can agree to shorten the period.

“The most important thing is for ZEC
to tell us when they can conduct the referendum. We agreed that the timing
of the elections will be decided after the referendum,” said Prof Ncube who
is also the Minister of Industry and Commerce.

Regional Integration minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said they were now on tender hooks awaiting the politburo
decision.

President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
Industry minister Welshman Ncube and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara brought
the four-year-long heckling on Zimbabwe’s new charter to a seemingly
positive end on Thursday last week after endorsing the draft
constitution.

In an interview with the Daily News at the weekend,
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Ncube’s party lead negotiator warned Zimbabweans
saying they needed to “hold onto their champagne bottles.”

“For some
of us, who have been through the torturous journey of back-and-forth
negotiating, we are on tender hooks and would like it if people would just
keep quiet for a moment.

“Remember we celebrated after the July 18
signing but what happened afterwards took everyone 100 steps backwards. Zanu
PF still has to go back to its politburo and anything can happen,”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.

She was referring to Mugabe’s astonishing
party stunt in which the former guerrilla movement somersaulted denying it
had signed the agreed draft.

What followed was another half a year of
negotiations but not before Zanu PF’s supreme decision-making body outside
congress spent 60 hours “editing the draft”.

The party went on to
produce its own version of the draft and tried to force it down the throats
of Zimbabweans. The two MDC formations in the shaky coalition government
stood their ground until last week’s landmark capitulation by
Mugabe.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga refused to comment on whether on the last
day of talks, Zanu PF negotiators had once again almost capitulated to the
party’s internal factional fights that are threatening to boil
over.

“In as much as I would like to tell you the juicy things that
happened, the time is not now. Let us wait until we have delivered the
constitution. When everything is signed and sealed. Munotibhururusira shiri
(you will destroy everything), with the stories you write,” said the
Regional Integration minister.

“It will not serve any purpose now. We
have things we might want Zimbabweans to know, some very interesting things
but please not now,” she said.

Insiders told the Daily News that Mugabe’s
party negotiators had tried to pull another back flip stunt after agreeing
to devolution demanding re-negotiation late on Wednesday.

“After
agreement was reached Chinamasa early in the day, (Patrick, Justice minister
and Zanu PF lead negotiator) came back and demanded to re-negotiate on
devolution. He had received a call from one of the party’s faction
leaders.

“The other parties refused and walked out. Overnight
Chinamasa realised there was no going back. He then called for an early
morning meeting of negotiators at which he confirmed Zanu PF’s agreement
with its earlier decision on devolution so the report on negotiations was
subsequently presented to the Principals,” an insider told the Daily
News.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, programmes manager, Nixon Nyikadzino
said there had not been much change to the July 18 draft accusing Zanu PF of
deliberately dragging the process.

“Zanu PF just wanted to drag the
process. The party is not ready for elections and as always, they seem to
have got their wish,” Nyikadzino said.

Election lobby group, the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (Zesn) in a statement last week expressed concern
over the idea of political parties having the final say once
again.

“It will result in more negotiations. Principals represent their
parties and so taking the draft to political parties again could be
duplication of effort,” the statement said.

Zimbabwe
Not On AU Summit Agenda

Addis Ababa, January 21, 2013 - The
Zimbabwean crisis does not feature anywhere on the agenda of the Africa
Union Summit which begins here on Monday, despite that it remains a crisis,
Den Moyo, Co-ordinator of 21st Movement Free Zimbabwe Global
Protest.

Moyo said in a statement that the only available press report
last year about the AU and Zimbabwe was stating that this was the second
year running that Zimbabwe had not featured in AU discussions, with
officials saying Zimbabwe was no longer considered a “critical
issue”.

This year again the SADC executive secretary, Tomaz Salamao, is
quoted saying that leaders meeting for the AU summit in Addis Ababa would
only set a date for a Zimbabwe Summit.

"Other reports are talking
about a proposal to dispatch an AU Council of Elders, possibly including
retired presidents, Kenneth Kaunda and Jerry Rawlings," said
Moyo.

Kaunda is 89 and was Zambia's first President from its independence
in 1964 to 1991. Rawlings is a former coup leader who was later elected
President.

"What force they have to bring to bear on Mugabe, if he
decides to continue with his intransigence, is questionable," said
Moyo.

"The chairmanship of outgoing AU chairman, Benin President Thomas
Boni Yayi has been a waste of time on the Zimbabwean issue, and the fact
that he stopped over in Harare to debrief President Mugabe at the end of his
chairmanship, suggests that President Mugabe is well aware of what will be
going on at Addis Ababa next week, unlike his rivals," added
Moyo.

"The AU's own report about Dr Yayi's meeting with President Mugabe
is quite telling: President Robert Mugabe reportedly assured him of peaceful
and friendly elections in Zimbabwe this year, yet Mugabe has not fulfilled
the SADC conditions for peaceful elections, and SADC has not reported to the
AU on the Zimbabwean process."

An interesting aside was the two
leaders' differences on Western intervention in Africa, which exposed
Mugabe's fears.

Dr Yayi explained the AU’s decision to seek NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation)'s intervention in Mali, which President Mugabe
was not only unhappy about, but, which his party portrayed as an uninvited
French invasion.

Dr. Yayi said, if the rebels had occupied Bamako it
would not only be catastrophic for Mali and the sub-region, but the whole
world.

“It is a matter of terrorism, it is difficult for us and I think
the right way is to request for the assistance, military assistance, from
NATO.”

Mugabe would rather the terrorists have overrun the Bamako
government while waiting for and African force that was not expected to be
ready until September.

Dr Yayi said, African countries were now ready
to assist Mali after the French intervention, although military intervention
was the last resort for Africa.

“The right way was to ask for
assistance from NATO. We are ready to go to Mali to help our brothers,” he
said.

Zim
Diaspora Petitions Zuma

Johannesburg, January 21, 2013 -
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora has called on President Jacob Zuma of South
Africa to take tangible actions, including a SADC Peacekeeping Force before
the Zimbabwean referendum, and for such a force to remain in Zimbabwe until
after the elections.

Saddened and concerned about the continued
suppression of freedoms by the Mugabe regime, which has waged a war against
its own people in the run up to another election that is threatening to be
violent, the 21st Movement Global Free Zimbabwe Movement has said gross
violations of human rights are continuing in Zimbabwe unabated.

The
latest example is the arrest and harassment, including refusal of bail, for
human rights activists, Leo Chamahwinya and Okay Machisa, both of the
Zimbabwe Human Rights Associations on clearly trumped up charges.

"We
are hopeful that you Mr. President, a man who respects human life and
dignity, will be at the forefront to stop the scourge that continues to
consume our nation.

"We are hopeful Mr. President that you will
continue to stand on the side of the suffering masses, and stop further
persecution and loss of innocent lives," they said in a petition to be
presented to South African Embassies this weekend and next
weekend.

The petition states that Zimbabweans had placed their trust in
President Jacob Zuma, the people of South Africa and the family of Southern
African countries under SADC to help stem the loss of limbs and life in
Zimbabwe urgently.

"We are hopeful Mr. President that you will
continue to stand on the side of the suffering masses, and stop further
persecution and loss of innocent lives," they said.

The chairman of
the 21st Movement, Den Moyo, also urged all Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to
join the protest on Saturday and next weekend to help send a clear message
to Zanu (PF) that it cannot get away with hoodwinking the international
community that it is undertaking democratic reforms, when it is
not.

He also urged President Zuma to advocate for the protection of the
people's vote by allowing international observers to monitor the elections
in Zimbabwe in line with SADC guidelines.

Indigenisation will cause
banks to divest, executive says

With Zimbabwe's largest foreign investors having fallen in line
with the country's indigenisation policy, the question banks now face is
increasingly how – no longer if – Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere
will localise their ownership.

Foreign-owned banks that would be
affected are Barclays, Standard Chartered, Standard Bank's Stanbic, MBCA –
which is partly owned by Nedbank, and Ecobank.

However, some banks
are unwilling to sell and are threatening to leave the country if forced to
comply. A senior bank executive said this week that international banks
would pull out if they lost control of their business. International banks
would not allow their brands to be used in institutions in which they did
not have control, he said.

"A mine's assets are in the ground and its
ability to extract resources. These can be quantified. But a bank's asset is
its brand. Once control of the local bank is lost, that bank simply ceases
to be part of the recognised global brand and public confidence vanishes,
resulting in failure of that bank," he said.

Officials in the
empowerment ministry involved in structuring the deals for banks say one of
the strategies being mooted is to force banks to put up money to fund black
businesses and farms as well as to sell shares to locals.

Kasukuwere
last year rejected Standard Chartered's proposal to sell only 10% of its
local operation.

Empowerment regulationsBoosted by his success in
forcing large mines to give up controlling stakes, Kasukuwere this week
dared foreign banks to either comply with empowerment regulations or
leave.

"We have the money, we can pay for their [foreign banks'] assets,"
Kasukuwere said.

Last year, the banks found a shield in central bank
governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who both came out
strongly against Kasukuwere's threats.

The row calmed as Kasukuwere
turned his sights on mines. Now that that sector is completely indigenised,
he is turning his attention to the banks.

"I would like to encourage
other companies, particularly in the banking sector, to comply with our
national laws as noncompliance will no longer be tolerated," Kasukuwere said
at the signing ceremony of the Zimplats empowerment deal last
Friday.

"Defiance and arrogance will not be tolerated as companies must
respect the law and desist from provoking the state. There will be no sacred
cow spared, no stone unturned to ensure that the policy is fully
implemented," he said.

Fast-track land reformA year ago, there was
scepticism in business circles as to whether mining giant Zimplats would
sell 51% of its business to locals, with some predicting a compromise would
be reached on a lower threshold.

Speculation among bank executives has
now turned to how the banks will be indigenised and many are looking at how
the empowerment deal with financial services provider Old Mutual was
structured for clues as to how financial services may be treated. As part of
the Old Mutual deal, the company set aside a total of 25%: 10% for staff, 9%
for pensioners, 2.5% for a "youth-development fund" and 3.5% for black
investors. It also had to spend money on a low-cost housing estate and a
government-administered national housing fund. Insiders at Old Mutual said
negotiations would soon resume on the remaining 26%.

At the centre of
Zanu-PF's pursuit of foreign banks is the belief that they deliberately
refuse to fund farmers resettled under its land-reform campaign and emerging
black businesses.

Before the launch of "fast-track land reform" in 2000,
80% of all bank lending went into agriculture, according to a report last
year by the African Development Bank. Farm loans now account for only 22% of
all bank lending, the report said.

Hit by a liquidity crisis because
of a poor performing economy, banks have little in reserve and are reluctant
to lend money to farmers who have no title to put up as security.

The
muscular display of power and pageantry at the inauguration in Washington
may be watched by envious eyes around the world. Not least among those who
yearn to build another USA – the United States of Africa – under a single
president.

Such was the dream of Muammar Gaddafi, a quixotic project that
appeared to have died with the Libyan dictator but has now been rekindled by
the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe.

Speaking in Harare after
meeting Benin's president, Thomas Boni Yayi, who is the outgoing African
Union (AU) chairman, Mugabe argued that a figurehead is needed to move
Africa beyond regional blocs and into the global superleague.

"Get them
to get out of the regional shell and get into one continental shell," he was
quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.

"The continent of
Africa: this is what we must become. And there, we must also have an African
head. He was talking of the president of Africa. Yes, we need one. We are
not yet there.

"This is what we must go and discuss, but we must also
discuss the issues that divide us."

The AU holds its latest summit
this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mugabe, 88, warned that Africans are not
as united as was expected by the founders of the AU's predecessor, the
Organisation of African Unity, half a century ago.

"We really have
not become integrated as an African people into a real union," he said. "And
this is the worry, which my brother has, and the worry I have; the worry
perhaps others also have. That we are not yet at that stage which was
foretold by our fathers when they created this organisation."

The
founding fathers had a vision of a continent united politically,
economically and culturally, he added. "We are not there yet. As we stand
here people will look at us, as me anglophone, him francophone, you see.
There is also lusophone, but we are Africans first and foremost. Africans,
Africans. Look at our skin.

"That's our continent, we belong to one
continent. We may, by virtue of history, have been divided by certain
boundaries and especially by colonialism. But our founding fathers in 1963
showed us the way and we must take up that teaching that we got in 1963.
That we are one and we must be united."

A United States of Africa
spanning Cape Town and Cairo was proposed by Gaddafi in 1999 as a way of
ending the continent's conflicts and defying the west, but it failed to
secure enough support from his African counterparts. Some suspected that
Gaddafi wanted the job for himself – a charge that Mugabe is hardly likely
to dodge.

There is a case for challenging borders that were drawn up by
European imperialists and which continue to inhibit travel and trade. But
critics say the notion of uniting 54 countries with their thousands of
languages and ethnicities is currently untenable. In fact some parts of
Africa have been moving in the opposite direction and seeking local
autonomy. Economies are moving at very different speeds.

Lindiwe
Zulu, international relations adviser to South African president Jacob Zuma,
said: "I don't foresee a single United States of Africa with a single
president because we are so diverse politically and otherwise. It is very
desirable in the long term but I don't see it any time soon. There is a lot
more to be done. We are still agonising over sovereignty."

She added:
"When you call for one president, you are calling for ministers to serve
under them, one parliament and one legislative process. There are too many
things that divide us on political, social and economic levels. We need to
have a common agenda and approach to human rights and development before we
can talk about one president. We need to deal with democracy on the
continent and leaders who think beyond themselves."

Richard Dowden,
director of the Royal African Society, said: "The idea that one government
could rule the whole of Africa at this stage is silly and unworkable. They
need to build from the bottom economically rather than imposing a notion of
unity from the top down; it's absurd.

"It is a dream of totalitarian
fantasists, not the people. Africa is becoming increasingly local. I'm in
Kenya at the moment and the forthcoming election is all about ethnic
arithmetic."

Lions,
hyenas terrorise Hwange village

VILLAGERS in the Jambezi area of Hwange district say they
are being stalked by lions and hyenas which have killed nearly two dozen
cattle.The animals escaped from the Hwange National Park through a broken
fence and have been roaming through the neighbouring communities, destroying
everything in their path.

Jambezi councillor Timothy Dumulomo Tshuma
said they had notified the Parks and Wildlife Authority, but had only been
promised training on how to handle the animal threat.

Tshuma said in
an interview on Sunday: “In Mbizha, one villager lost three cattle in his
kraal. The man was tending to his field; heard some rumble of noise, rushed
home and found lions inside his kraal feasting on his cattle. He could do
nothing.”

He said he had heard accounts of how young boys herding cattle
were sent scampering by lions which then attacked their herds before hyenas
scrambled for left-overs.

He went on: “The villagers have created
groups to guard their livestock. They now walk around armed with axes. We
always advise villagers to be extra cautious.

“The greatest problem
is that our villages are next to the game park, and with the fence damaged,
it’s difficult to control these animals because they escape and wander into
populated areas sourcing for food.”

Last year, elephants killed two
people within a week in Jambezi. The elephants were met by scared villagers
who threw sticks and stones at them trying to chase them away, unknowingly
provoking them in the process.

Mutare
sitting on health time bomb

Monday, 21 January 2013 11:08HARARE -
Clearly, this is their dirty little secret. They need to survive.

Often
staying for more than a week — sleeping side by side with vagrants on shop
verandas at Sakubva Bus Terminus, rural vendors who travel to Mutare to sell
wares end up relieving themselves in drains, backyards, roadsides and
alleys, and bathing only their privates under cover of darkness.

Come
mornings, they are busy selling vegetables and fruits to locals, who are yet
to lift the lid off the life fruit and vegetable producers live when they
come with their merchandise to Mutare from faraway places such as Honde
Valley.

Women constitute the bulk of these traders who have to endure
tough conditions to either feed households they lead or supplement their
husbands’ paltry earnings.

With council’s health department denying
travellers, vagrants, rank marshals, vendors, drivers, conductors and guards
usage of toilets at night at the 24-hour terminus, the city is sitting
uneasily on a health time bomb.

Sakubva, apart from hosting the city’s
main fruit and vegetable market, is also a transit route.

Traffic
from across the country as well as to and from neighbouring Botswana,
Mozambique and South Africa pass through here.

One of the vendors, Susan
Chiwaya, says they sleep three nights a week on average at the market to
sell-off their wares.

We travel in groups of relatives and we have to
stay together, otherwise our husbands would not allow us to come,” she
said.

She said while there are people in Sakubva Township who offer rooms
at a $1 per night per individual, the collective nature of their travelling
and living conditions make it difficult.

“If other members of the
group feel they cannot afford it then you will have to put up in the open —
out of comradeship. We watch over each other. Everyone is a witness,” she
said.

“We sometimes return home ill and remain in bed for days. We also
worry about the health of our families because we are never too sure of what
diseases we catch here,” she said.

Some of the women however, bath
and wash their clothes at the toilets at Sakubva Stadium, whose perimeter
has all but collapsed hence the easy access.

Council senior health
and hygiene officer Matthew Dukwa said council was too resource-constrained
to open toilets round the clock as that would require hiring more
cleaners.

“It would have been ideal (to have the toilets open) but it is
not tenable due to manpower and security issues,” Dukwa said.

Dukwa
said it was illegal to sleep at the terminus, which had no accommodation
facilities. He blamed out-of-town fruit and vegetable vendors for extending
their stay in the city and putting up on shop verandas.

Law
society refocuses

By Gugulethu Nyazema, Staff WriterMonday, 21 January
2013 11:48HARARE - The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) says it is refocusing
on its fundamental role of regulating the legal profession after years of
tackling President Robert Mugabe’s government over democratic and other
civil rights issues.

This comes as the decades-old institution has
often been accused by the Harare administration of dabbling in politics over
its socio-politic inclinations and programmes.

“LSZ is now back to
its traditional role. It has not been easy, but we are pleased that the
improving environment has released us from over-commitment to human rights
and rule of law,” association president Tinoziva Bere said in the 2012 and
year-end report.

“One of my major priorities… was to improve the
financial stability and independence of the society. The ultimate aim was to
ensure the LSZ budget is centrally financed by members. This I believed
would strengthen the independence of the legal profession,” he said, adding
this objective had been met.

To this end, the Harare-based
institution was refocusing on strengthening its governance structures,
financial position and other issues or functions by restructuring its
full-time secretariat.

Other priorities, included the provision of
effective member representation, taking an active role in the legislative
agenda, increase media visibility and publicity as well as realisation of
social intercourse, and member engagement.

With one of the outgoing
executive’s major goals being to clear the backlog of cases through an
enhanced case management system and 100 percent spot checks on all
distressed firms, Bere also hoped to make an impact on Zimbabwe’s law-making
processes, improve the quality of lawyers standing before courts and those
in the advocates’ chambers.

Crucially, the LSZ must be a leading champion
of the rule of law, independence of the legal and judiciary sectors as well
as effective manager of its programmes, and resources through the judicious
application of its business ideals.

“It has made it possible for us
to strengthen the profession from its centre starting with its governance
structure and process its secretariat… its fiscal processes that ensure
efficient and prudent resource utilisation, intensified discipline processes
both historical and futuristic… retaining and re-skilling the profession,”
the prominent Zimbabwean lawyer said.

While the legal organ was keen on
achieving the highest possible standards by having a computerised case
management system and other strategies, it has also drawn up an ambitious
training programme for the upcoming year under its continuing legal
education programme for lawyers, and other related
parties.

Meanwhile, the LSZ has also co-opted Precious Chakasikwa of
Kantor and Immerman — in line with its gender policy and — as a fourth
councillor for Harare.

Striking
farm workers evicted

By Chengetayi Zvauya, Parliamentary EditorMonday, 21
January 2013 11:22HARARE - Twenty evicted families at Mara Farm in Goromonzi
South Constituency are being soaked by rains as the police are denying them
entry into the farm to collect their belongings.

The Daily News
visited the farm last Thursday and witnessed the farm-workers
ordeal.

This reporter saw armed police manning the farm, patrolling
the farm preventing workers from accessing shelter from the pounding
rains.

MDC Member of Parliament for Goromonzi South, Greenbate Zvanyanya
Dongo, managed to address the workers who are living in the forest which is
near Mara Farm.

The families, who were evicted last Monday, claim
that since Edward Dube acquired the farm in 2005, he had been underpaying
them.

The evicted workers claimed Dube kicked them out after they
demanded their dues.

Most of the labourers who are foreigners have no
alternative accommodation are now surviving on the benevolence of workers
from neighbouring farms who are assisting them with food and
water.

The former workers said they could not access food or water from
their previous workplace after they were told not to enter the
farm.

A court order granted by Justice Hlatshwayo last November ordered
the workers to vacate the farm.Some of the workers said they had been
working on the farm since 1985 under former white farmer Arthur
Hale.

Armed police tried to stop the meeting between Dongo and the farm
workers saying it was an unauthorised meeting but the meeting prevailed
after Dongo produced his parliamentary identity card.

“I did not know
there were armed police officers at the farm, they are threatening these
defenceless workers. I was approached by the workers to help.

“They
need food, clothes and tents for their upkeep during this rainy season. I am
going to seek a meeting with Dube to find out why he has evicted these
workers during the rainy season without paying them,” said
Dongo.

Olery Njiri leader of the displaced farm workers related the
problems they are facing following their evictions from the farm.

“We
are having problems of shelter and food as we have not been paid our money
by Dube. Our children are not going to school. My family was threatened last
year in May when I asked Dube to pay our salaries, and he framed up charges
that I had stolen his maize,” said Njiri.

Dube defended the eviction of
20 families from Mara Farm just outside Epworth claiming they no longer
worked for him and he had obtained a court order to kick them
out.

Dube, who is into dairy farming, said the families had continued
staying at his property after he advised them to leave. He also claimed the
families remained defiant even after he showed them the eviction
order.

Dube said the farmer workers were in contempt of a court
order.

“These workers should vacate my farm as the High Court ruled. The
presence of the police is to help me to enforce the court order. They are
making a lot of allegations trying to defame my character but I am on the
right side of the law as I am the legal owner of the farm who has terminated
their working contracts,” said Dube.

Zanu
PF abusing churches

HARARE - A 95-year-old church leader
commanding a million-plus followers has crossed swords with Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, which accuses him of undermining the party amid
concerns that Zanu PF is abusing churches.

The MDC is denouncing Paul
Mwazha, leader of the massively-followed African Apostolic Church, for
allegedly propping President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in his
sermons.

Mwazha is on an evangelical crusade countrywide.

He
torched controversy with MDC leaders in Mashonaland East Province last week
when addressing a multitude, allegedly urging people to vote for President
Robert Mugabe.

Mwazha says he is neutral and the allegations are
hogwash.

MDC councillor for Ward 1 Archibald Mudimu, however, said
Mwazha’s open- air sermon at Munyawiri Secondary School in Chinamhora was
full of anti-MDC sloganeering.

“He has held two meetings in Goromonzi
West and we know that he has been preaching against our party leader Morgan
Tsvangirai telling his church members to vote for Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe
in the elections,” said Mudimu.

“We don’t want him any more in our
area as he is preaching politics,” said Mudimu.

African Apostolic
Church general secretary Richard Juru denied that Mwazha was preaching
politics at the crusades but was praying for all national political
leaders.

“We pray for our inclusive government leaders that is President
Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and other cabinet
ministers.

“Maybe some of the political leaders are feeling that they are
being left out, but we don’t segregate against anyone as we don’t want to be
engaged in politics. But there is nothing wrong if we pray for President
Mugabe because he is the national leader,” said Juru.

“I invite you
to our church sermon and you can hear for yourself prophet Mwazha preach and
hear whether he is segregating against Prime Minister Tsvangirai,” he
said.

As the country enters the campaign season ahead of general
elections, Zimbabwe’s political parties have gone all out to woo voters
found in churches.

Mugabe, his deputy Joice Mujuru and a host of his
party officials have been frequenting church services mainly for the
apostolic faith in a bid to hook up voters in this hugely popular
movement.

While generally a fan of controversial Nigerian preacher and
“miracle man” TB Joshua, Tsvangirai has also been on a whirlwind drive to
associate with churches.

In partnership with some churches, he was
recently on a tour of the country meeting grassroots people in a programme
dubbed prayer rallies.

Despair arising from deep seated poverty and
unemployment – two signs of the failure of the coalition government– has
forced millions to turn to churches for hope.

Largely a Christian
country, Zimbabwe has seen a mushrooming of different types of
churches.

From prosperity gospel powerhouses such as Emmanuel Makandiwa’s
United Family International Church to small groups congregating under trees,
churches are taking centre stage in Zimbabweans’ lives.

With
elections possibly less than six months away, Zimbabwe is likely to see an
intensification of churches playing a leading role in voter mobilisation.

The MDC
Today

The following is
an extract of an interview where the Secretary General Hon Tendai Biti spoke
on what JUICE is all about and what the people of Zimbabwe should expect
once it is translated into reality. In this particular extract Hon Biti
focuses on the need to expand the national cake so that all Zimbabweans can
benefit from it and not just a few in Zanu PF.

Hon Biti: The starting
point is to recognize fundamentally that Zimbabwe is a very small economy,
less than 3% of the entire SADC economy with a mere budget of US$3.8 billion
and Southern Africa’s 3rd smallest economy after Lesotho and Swaziland,
nominal GDP about US$11 billion so the cake is very small.

The
challenge is how do we expand the cake. The point of departure between MDC
and Zanu PF is that Zanu PF starts from the starting point that let’s
distribute this tiny economy which is a rat, lets distribute this tiny rat
to over 14 million people.

The MDC’s position is that fundamentally,
let’s expand this economy, let’s have supply side reform that expands the
cake so that it becomes an elephant. And in that way, we can have more
economic players than when you have a tiny population
participating.

The problem we have with current Indigenisation Programme
to the extent that it’s not nationalisation as nobody is getting shares for
free. You have to buy them. And in a situation where the per capita income
of the average Zimbabwean is US$370.00, and in a situation where 85% of the
people are living below the poverty datum line it means only a very few
people, a tiny elite can afford to buy shares in Barclays bank, Zimplats, so
the Zanu PF model becomes predatory accumulation from the rich to the rich
its not empowerment its an elite predatory transfer.

David Coltart replies

ROBSON Sharuko this morning (Saturday) in The Herald poses the following
questions which he says I won’t answer.

He writes:

“FOR everything that Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David
Coltart has said to back his controversial package of measures guiding the
appointment of national team selectors, there is one fundamental question he
hasn’t confronted. It’s either he has deliberately skipped it or simply ignored
it.

Do we have people in this country whose ambitions to play for the national
team were blocked because of the colour of their skin?

And, if that is the case, is it fair, 33 years down the Independence
journey, to re-open old wounds and draft measures that will elbow those people,
out of their sporting structures, because they happened to have been victims of
racial prejudice in the past?”

Whilst I am reluctant to perpetuate this debate as the questions have been
put directly to me I am obliged to answer them immediately.

I have no doubt that because of the injustice of racial discrimination in
the past that there are many people whose ambitions to play for their national
team were blocked because of racial discrimination.

I am keenly aware of that and have never been an apologist for the racist
policies of the Rhodesian Front and would never want to be part of a system
which sought in any way, directly or indirectly, to bring the horrors of that
system back in any form.

I think that my professional record over the last 30 years since I returned
to Zimbabwe shows that I have embraced a multi racial Zimbabwe wholeheartedly
and abhor racism in all its forms, both past and present.

It follows that it would be entirely unfair, and completely out of my own
character, to deliberately implement policies that perpetuates, directly or
indirectly, the injustices of the past.

However, I now have a few questions for him. Who are these people and how
have they been elbowed out? He is talking in the plural and so the onus is on
him to spell out who these people are. The only person at present who has been
mentioned is Givemore Makoni. I would like to know who else has been or will be
affected.

Once we know the names of the people then we must interrogate whether they
were in fact blocked from playing for their country because of the colour of
their skin.

Whilst I do not argue for a second that it took a long time for black
Zimbabweans to be drawn into cricket (something we see in South Africa today 20
years after the end of apartheid with pitifully few black players in both their
cricket and rugby squads) and that it was difficult for black players to learn
the game and be recognised even post independence, we must still ask the
question whether the person allegedly affected had the skills to play for
Zimbabwe.

As I understand the arguments put forward Givemore Makoni says that he
would have played for Zimbabwe but for the fact that he was blocked, and
therefore is now being prejudiced.

But is that true or just a cover? Makoni says that in 1988 he went to under
15 trials which accordingly to my calculations means he was born in 1973, that
is after Bruce Makovah, born in 1969, and after Ethan Dube, born in 1970. Both
of the last two gentlemen played cricket at provincial and national level,
something Makoni never did.

Henry Olonga and Pommie Mbangwa were both born in 1976 and both went to
Government schools. Whilst they had three years less of racial discrimination to
contend with they clearly were not discriminated against when it came to
selection for Zimbabwe.

Bruce Makovah, in defending Makoni, said this week that Makoni played
cricket “but not at a high level” — his words not mine.

Why was Mr Makoni discriminated against if they weren’t or was he just not
good enough? I am not in way disputing that black players had tremendous and
unfair obstacles to overcome but can we truthfully say that that was the reason
Makoni didn’t play provincial or national cricket? In other words was he in fact
“blocked” from selection as suggested?

But there is a second question that Robson Sharuko must answer — even if we
accept that Mr Makoni should have played for Zimbabwe but for racial
discrimination is he in fact being “elbowed out of their sporting structures
because they were victims of racial prejudice”? I would answer that question for
him as follows.

Firstly if Mr Makoni is the only example that can be given, he is not being
elbowed out of his sporting structure.

He remains as manager of the Rocks and indeed in terms of the amendments to
the Directives which the SRC is now working on will be eligible to remain a
selector if the Zimbabwe Cricket apply to the SRC.

So even in this one example there is no “elbowing out”. And if the gripe is
that he is being “elbowed out” of the position of convener that is not because
of race or his past but because of international best practice.

If we narrowly focus in on cricket, it is true that every single top Test
playing cricket nation bar Zimbabwe and New Zealand employ respected former
national players as convener of selectors.

There must be a reason for this and it has nothing to do with race or
historical racial discrimination. Related to this can we say with absolute
honesty that the system employed in Zimbabwe Cricket is working well? Our
performances on the field over the last year certainly do not indicate
that.

Secondly Mr Makoni is not the only person in sport in Zimbabwe who will not
be able to keep his position as convener — for example Austin Jeans, the well
known sports doctor, was convener of the triathlon national selection panel, and
he too will no longer be able to be convener.

Jeans is white so it has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with
a consistent national policy which is in the national interest and consistent
with international best practice. Triathlon Zimbabwe, like Zimbabwe Cricket,
will have to apply to the SRC to have him approved as a selector.

There are two final questions I have for Robson Sharuko. Is it right that a
policy which is clearly in the national interest, and designed to improve
Zimbabwe’s sporting performance, should be blocked by spurious and baseless
arguments that somehow they perpetuate racism?

Secondly is it right that such a good national policy, which seeks to
implement international best practice, should be attacked solely to protect the
interests of one person? I hope he won’t deliberately skip or ignore these
questions.

Are
black Zimbabweans racists?

Vince
Musewe says his country's politicians want all things Western, but are quick
to speak against the West

African politicians are a strange breed indeed,
quick to condemn and shout against colonialism and imperialism, but slow to
shed their personal colonial comforts.

It is always a dangerous
occupation to generalize. As Mark Twain once said; "All generalizations are
false including this one". However, I think the above issue needs to be
explored, simply because it has been quite intriguing for me, to talk to
black Zimbabweans about the past and how it has affected their thinking
today. I therefore ask for my readers' indulgence in advance, lest I
generalize, an inevitable consequence of the subject matter discussed
herein.

Growing up in the then Rhodesia was never easy for us blacks. I
remember my high school days where, despite having an excellent education, I
was traumatized by the overt racism that I experienced from fellow white
students at a certain private school just outside Harare. I only realized
this later on in my life that, I was continually abused verbally and
emotionally. The word "kaffir" ended up not meaning much to me, because I
heard it so many times.

I stopped reacting negatively to it, and
began to even laugh when I was called that. The lie that blacks are inferior
was repeated to me so many times for six years, that I began to believe it.
Even after independence, the Zimbabwe's corporate sector was fraught with
racist practices that held back blacks while accelerating the promotion of
whites. That too I experienced during my articles in Harare. I guess our
older generation of Zimbabweans also had similar experiences. You end up
accepting those things you can't change and focusing on those you
can.

I do not necessarily hate whites today, but I detest white racism or
any traces of a superiority complex they may display. It's simply a myth.
However, not all whites are racists.

Despite the above, the older
generation of Zimbabweans appreciates how the ‘murungu' was organized. Wages
were always paid on time, properties and roads well maintained or
developed, infrastructure worked, medicines were available, street lights
always on, rubbish was collected on time every time, drinking water was safe
and so on. It stops there, because there is nothing sweeter than freedom and
liberty even without the comforts of the colonialist.

We must admit
though, that whites are more organized, good at planning and management, and
they also have the technology that we need to develop our country, something
we cannot take away from them. All you have to do to prove this today, in
Zimbabwe, is to visit a black managed farm and compare it to a white managed
one. It's chalk and cheese, as they say.

There is a tendency among some
of us to detest all whites, because of our history. This is more evident
among those blacks who suffered terribly under colonialism and the
liberation struggle. Those black Zimbabweans who participated in the
liberation struggle bore the brunt of white hate and violence. I am
therefore, the least qualified to judge how they feel today. Speaking to
some of them, they still hate whites to this day, because of suffering they
caused in order to protect white economic advantage. I understand where my
brothers and sisters are coming from.

That granted, I think they,
however, still acknowledge that whites certainly did have a hand in
developing Zimbabwe, albeit to their selfish ends. There was absolutely no
justification for their selfishness. In my opinion, Rhodesian whites were
rather slow to react to a changed environment after independence, and did
not acknowledge blacks as equal partners by incorporating them in the
economy, especially the agricultural sector. It was a case of separate but
equal development.

This has afforded our erstwhile politicians, an excuse
to take radical steps, which have been catastrophic for everyone. South
African whites in the agricultural sector must learn from this. The quicker
South African blacks are incorporated into this sector as owners and not
mere workers, the better off everyone will be in the long
term.

Zimbabwean blacks benefited tremendously from education provided by
white missionaries, but Rhodesian education policy towards blacks was racist
and can never be defended. I have learnt, for example, that it was most
difficult to become a black doctor. This was simply because the Smith regime
would not accept that.

Instead, the British assisted a significant
number of blacks to become doctors, by providing them with scholarships to
study abroad. Therein lays the dilemma: Rhodesian whites were crudely
racist, while the British were more accommodating towards the aspirations of
black Zimbabweans. Despite their colonial baggage, the British were
therefore "better" whites than white Rhodesians. But is there a term such as
a better racist? Hmm I wonder.

On the political front, it is evident
that there is an overt abhorrence of whites, but one needs to understand the
dynamics that have led to this phenomenon. I will not delve into it here,
but suffice it to say that, to some extent, Mugabe's experience with, and
opinion of, the British has been "institutionalized "in
Zimbabwe.

This may have has created a misconception that all blacks hate
whites, which is not necessarily the case. You will hear stories of some
good deeds done towards black Zimbabweans by whites, and we ought to give
credit where it is due. The British for example, still give considerable aid
to Zimbabwe today, and so do a lot of other European countries and America.
In fact, they seem more concerned about our social underdevelopment than our
own black politicians! How bizarre, but not surprising at all.

The
cacophony we hear today about indigenization and the drive to take over
white owned companies for me, is driven more by political desperation than
by the absolute hate of whites. What always amazes me is that, our
politicians here speak against everything white, but can be seen jumping
into British or German manufactured cars, love Scottish whisky and British
tea, adore Italian suits and Swiss made watches? They want all things
Western, but are quick to speak against the West. For me that is the
contradiction of it all. I always ask myself that: if these guys really hate
whites or the west so much, why do they love what whites make and like to
emulate how they live? Mental slavery- perhaps?

But as we all know,
African politicians are a strange breed indeed, quick to condemn and shout
against colonialism and imperialism if that is going to earn them political
power, but slow to shed the personal material comforts and benefits they
derive from their former masters. Talk about being authentic!

I
therefore conjecture that; some black Zimbabweans still hate what some
whites did to them in the past, but in my opinion, black Zimbabweans in
general, do not necessarily hate whites with the obsessive passion that we
see "you know who" showing at political gatherings, before he is whisked
away in his German made limousine, or his French Alouette helicopter. Hmmm
how ironic.

Zimbabwe Freedom Fighters Also Committed Evil Atrocities

The Chimurenga war left too many bloody memories that still haunt many to
this day. The sad part was that the villagers were the ones who faced the music
as they served as the sea for the Freedom Fighters who deemed themselves the
fish. Their side of the story always landed them in danger from either of the
fighting sides. In a lot of ways, they remained victims of the war in both sides
regardless of what they believed as the true cause to root for. Today, they
still remain victims of elections through gruesome punishments in case they
choose not to vote for Zanu PF. Their suffering continues even though the
regimes have changed.

mouth cut alive… Chikombe Mazvidza after receiving medical care. “The
people who did this are not human beings” he said

Freedom Fighters wanted full commitment and support because they were
fighting for the liberation of the black person against the obnoxious colonial
system. The Rhodesia Front on the other side was fighting a war to defend the
system that had given them sovereignty and control over the native populations.
Both sides had a common hunting ground. The villages were the war front where
they hunted and killed each other. Cases of deflected blows and stray bullets or
fierce retribution after losing some team members to the enemy or as a way to
punish the villagers to comply with the demands of either side were common. Many
atrocities were committed and yet no side claimed full responsibility. The
propaganda machinery made it easier for either side to push blame on the sought
enemy yet no one knew exactly who had done what among the vulnerable villagers.
The only known evidence was when the villagers were rounded up to witness a
retribution exercise.

The RF used advanced military hardware, Dakota planes, land mines, Selous
scouts and cavalry teams as they roamed and bombed lots of places and villages
to the extent of reaching even Chimoio and Nyadzonya in Mozambique. Of course
some have maintained that the Mozambique bombings were an inside job by some
selfish Zanu PF leaders who actually disclosed the finer details in exchange for
rewards. Those still living have varying facts about this issue and the truth
still remains to emerge. The hunt for “terrorists” and innocent villagers in
refugee camps was an obsession driven by fear of loss of control over a place
that they had come to consider as home. Rhodesians were not willing to surrender
their grip on farms, mines and factories. Thousands of lives were therefore lost
that way and there was no looking back. Simultaneously, acid or poison could be
sprayed on water holes or abandoned clothes and left for desperate or unwary
Freedom Fighters to help themselves and they would die from that sulfuric acid
eating their flesh.

Above: June 19, 1975 An African female was beaten and burned alive by three
terrorists.

On the Freedom Fighters side, their anger was manifested whenever they felt
betrayed by the masses. They had to send a clear message through instant but
gruesome justice that gave villagers permanent injuries, excruciating pain and
disfigurement. Reported sellouts were punished before fellow villagers and there
were no consequences. With such gruesome punishments, villagers towed the
support line easily as fear and trauma ruled their environments. Of course some
used that opportunity to bring their hatred and jealous on fellow villagers
whose names they tendered to the freedom Fighters for atrocities to take place
to their pleasure and satisfaction. Many incidents were reported of villagers
turning against each other and using Freedom Fighters’ anger for justice to be
invoked. It became more or less like an eye for an eye as many lived in fear of
each other.

In an unprecedented probate on some of the acts of magandanga during the
war as committed against their own blood, some former Rhodesian soldiers have
disclosed pieces of hair-raising atrocities that are supported by gripping
images. On December 3, 1975, a terrorist gang cut off the ears, nose and chin
from Chikombe Mazvidza of Kandeya Tribal Trust Land in Mount Darwin. They then
forced his wife to cook and eat the flesh. A burning ember was thrust into his
mother’s genitals and two other locals were also assaulted. His five children
and 60 villagers were forced to watch. Some were burnt in their mud and dagga
huts. Some lost their upper lips, ears or eyes. And at another, Anna, an
innocent woman of Mt Darwin district, had her upper lip pulled with a pair of
pliers and hacked off with a bayonet by “terrorists”. All the said acts were
part of a retribution exercise meant to silence them from coordinating with
Rhodesia front Forces.

Upon news reaching the Freedom Fighter that so and so had been seen to be
coordinating or selling out their whereabouts to Rhodesia Front forces, the
Freedom Fighters would be quick to descend on the named culprits and perform
“justice”.

Some participants in the war confirm that such acts happened so many times
as the Freedom Fighter were too angry with the situation and wanted the povo to
support them.. In light of the seriousness of the war, where cooperation was not
forthcoming or where their lives were exposed to danger, they took to their
heels, sought cover and then made concerted efforts to return for a purging
ceremony. Such a ceremony was also meant to instill fear among the villagers so
that they could empathize with the cause of the Freedom Fighters.

While the Freedom Fighters committed such atrocities, those in the Rhodesia
front were not saints either. Like they say when two elephants fight, it is the
grass that suffers. Where the Rhodesia front Forces felt betrayed by the
villagers as they nefariously supported the Freedom Fighters during night times,
they also swooped on the same villagers and did their own forms of justice. Some
were arrested and detained as some were shot and killed in broad day
lights.

The RF side believes that “ZPF was running a “terror” war and the brutality
was committed by way of design. In their previous attempts at incursions in the
late 60s and early 70s early reporting by some communal people and farm workers
made extended stays in areas too risky. At that time the RG Security Forces had
very high levels of success in their anti-incursion operations. The support of
the locals for the insurgents could only be reliably forced by terror tactics –
as we all well know the rule of fear is far stronger than the rule of love. In
his own words Mugabe has “degrees in terror” and still relies on this form of
support from the general population of Zimbabwe.

I was for a short period involved with “Phyacs operations” (the retention
of the “hearts and minds”) of the populous.

There were a few of us from Internal Affairs and single reps from some of
the other RG Services. Our mission was to “educate” some of the operational
personnel in the services on the approach to be made to various senior members
of the tribal community especially the vakuru of the Tribal Authority and of
course the nangas and svikiros (spirit mediums) who held great sway of opinion
in all the so called “Shona” areas. Unfortunately we were all stood-down and
the function was passed to members of the military. One of their brain-waves
was to produce the booklet “Anatomy of Terror” which was distributed far and
wide. It was one of the greatest propaganda blunders ever committed in a
terrorist war : all that was achieved was the distribution of the very message
Mugabe was trying to disseminate with his terror machine and that was “If you do
not support us fully we will kill you and your family in the worst possible
manner”. Information to the SF from that time reduced to a trickle and much of
our war effort had to transfer to external operations.

Initially many of the atrocities were committed willy-nilly just to instill
fear and trepidation. Once the fear was established then the commitment of the
locals came close behind by forcing their support rather like a schoolboy
involves all those around him in having a drag on his cigarette to commit them
to the “crime”, get them on sides as an accomplice and prevent their future
reporting of the incident. This system still operates well with Mugabe’s members
of the “gravy-train” – they all involved in the kleptocracy. Unfortunately we
in the old RG security forces found the situation frustrating and there were
many occasions when force was used to gain information when we were sure the
individuals concerned knew more than they were relating (“andizivi, andioni”).
Of course the natives were in a very invidious position as they always knew
that all they would get from us was some slaps and kicks but this was far
preferable to the loss of ears, noses, tongues, eyes or even the entire family.
We simply could not match “fear for fear”. The Terror War was difficult to
repel, a fact worth remembering in all walks of life and one which is best
understood by Mugabe himself.

It is probable that well over 20,000 people were killed by the “liberation
forces” (ZANLA and ZIPRA) in their establishment of Fear. Another similar
number perished in the Gukuruhundi in Matebeleland (I happened to be there too
!!) and of course many more hundreds of thousands have now been forced back to a
subsistence form of lively-hood, a state of means that Mugabe maintains they
should “be proud of”. This is highly debatable but I have to say that looking
at the consumer society we have here in the industrial World I do wonder whether
he is right.”

These are the two sides of the same war. Both sides religiously believed in
the cause for their being right yet the villagers remained vulnerable to such
atrocities.

Zimbabwe's
Forgotten Generation

Underfunded, under-resourced and disrupted by recent
political and economic unrest, Zimbabwe's schools may have left a generation
uneducated and unskilled.

21 JANUARY 2013 - 10:12AM | BY BERNARD
CHIKETO

Mutare, Zimbabwe:Over recent years, political turmoil
and economic collapse in Zimbabwe have received plenty of attention and
coverage. At the same time, however, a crisis in the country’s once
well-regarded education sector has been developing more quietly, even though
its implications could be as significant for Zimbabwe’s
future.

Amidst national unrest, teaching was disrupted from 2006 to 2009,
and with few mechanisms to help pupils catch up or re-take years, when they
returned thousands found themselves unable to gain a meaningful education.
Also underfunded and under-resourced, in 2011, a tide of schools recorded a
0% pass rate in national ordinary (‘O-level’) examinations. Now, Zimbabwe
faces the serious challenges of dealing with a damaged education system in
which thousands of pupils are at higher levels than they can cope with, and
a lost generation of young people many of whom were left unskilled and
uneducated.

School’s out: Pamela’s storyPamela Mudzingaidzwa, now 20,
is one of the young Zimbabweans who missed out on the education she expected
and had long hoped for. “I carried my parents’ hope”, she recalls to Think
Africa Press.

But despite excelling in the early years of her schooling,
by the time she sat for her O-levels in 2010, she had lost all hope. “After
four years of irregular learning during which l was just being pushed along
and not ready to sit for an exam, l changed schools to retake my classes.”
Against Zimbabwe’s education policies which do not allow for second-chance
education, Pamela explains, she moved to Mutare to stay with her sister and
enrol in another school.

“But it only became worse. I was placed in a
condemned class…Teachers did not show up so much that some of us would sneak
into other classes to learn. Some pupils would abscond a whole week and
no-one would even care.”

Unsurprisingly, Pamela left school having failed
her exams. Nevertheless, she sees herself as one of the lucky ones compared
to some of the rest of the generation that missed out on an education. After
leaving school, Pamela was afforded a vocational training opportunity and is
now studying catering. “If l didn’t have a caring family l was going to be
working 15 hours a day as a housemaid”, she says.

Forgotten
pupilsNot all can hope to be as fortunate however. A UNICEF report notes
that an estimated one million children do not have access to schools or the
resources to improve their knowledge and skills. Similarly, data from the
Ministry of Education, Sports, Art and Culture (MoESAC) reveals that between
2000 and 2008 more than 2 million children and young people failed their
O-levels or dropped out aged 13.

As well as insufficient funding,
amidst the country’s political and socio-economic crises, Zimbabwe’s schools
lost part of 2006, the entirety of 2007 and segments of the 2008 and 2009’s
academic years. UNICEF found that 94% of rural schools were closed by 2009,
with pupil attendance plunging from over 80% to 20%. Over 3 million skipped
fundamental steps, and without the opportunity to retake years, pupils were
simply pushed to higher grades and forms regardless of their mastery of
previous levels.

When teachers returned in 2009, after the establishment
of a coalition government, they encountered pupils who had skipped as many
as three levels. It is not surprising then that the national pass rate for
O-Level exams in 2009 was a mere 19% – a significant drop on the 72% pass
rate enjoyed in the mid-1990s.

A ‘Rapid Assessment of Primary and
Secondary Schools’, funded by the European Commission and conducted by the
National Advisory Board in 2009, confirmed that the decline in quality of
education was due to a lack of teaching and lack of sufficient learning
materials.

Furthermore, a primary school teacher at a rural school in
Manicaland told Think Africa Press how he has 4 levels in his class in which
no-one is at the appropriate level. He is expected to help each group catch
up, but not all teachers possess the appropriate skills to teach infant
concepts successfully.

Catching upThe government has made a few
minor attempts to repair the system, including revising the policy
prohibiting second chance education. Development charity Plan International
is exploiting this to get children back into school – particularly girls who
often lose out when families favour the education of their brothers.
According to Willard Nengomasha, Plan International’s Learning Advisor,
around 420 girls have so far been taken back to school in a pilot programme
in the town of Chiredzi.

A study by MoESAC also led to the implementation
of the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP). This initiative submits
pupils to a diagnostic examination to establish their “last point of
mastery” then helps them catch up to where they should be. Singling out
English and Mathematics, PLAP dedicates time to revisiting the syllabus and
targeting concepts that have proven persistently difficult for neglected
pupils to catch up on.

However, the scheme has been implemented with
mixed success. Many secondary school timetables are failing to accommodate
the programme, which requires teachers to go out of their way to work with
children. Furthermore, UNICEF claims that up to 25% of teachers do not even
meet the minimum teaching qualifications MoESAC demands.

Prioritising
educationPLAP is an ambitious programme which hopes to remedy the problem in
just 3 years – but this may be too little too late for the thousands who
have been completing (and often failing) O-levels since 2006. Furthermore,
the programme will not be available to those sitting their national
examinations in the near future, for fear of interfering with their
preparations and learning of the syllabi.

However, if successful, the
model could also be extended to non-formal training settings and vocational
training institutions. In this way, those who have missed out could
eventually also benefit from the programme.

But perhaps the underlying
issue that needs to be overcome is an ingrained government mentality which
fails to recognise the importance of education. MoESAC chief David Coltart
has gone on record complaining that the unity government has failed to make
education a priority, scathingly remarking that Zimbabwe’s education crisis
was being perpetuated by officials “spending three times more money on
globetrotting compared to education”. For Zimbabwe to build a better future,
the government will need to address both its current education crisis as
well as cultivate longer-term appreciation of the importance of education.